In a solicitation for proposals posted on Jun. 24, 2008, by the United States Department of Energy (DOE) covering advanced, clean coal-based power generation technology, the solicitation (on page 6, paragraphs 3 and 4 of Section B, titled “MISSION NEED AND BACKGROUND”) stated the following: “Changes in market realities have altered the energy/power and environmental landscape. These changes include significant escalation in material and labor costs for new power plants, a growing near-term interest in the promulgation of regulations for carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions, and a growing trend by States to require coal plants to consider CCS. These changes, in particular those related to atmospheric emissions of CO2, present great environmental changes to the future of fossil-based power generation, pose serious potential barriers to the power industry to finance and build new coal-based generation capacity, and underscore the need to quickly demonstrate the commercial viability of a new generation of advanced coal-based power systems.
The Energy Information Administration forecasts the need for more than 200 gigawatts of new power generation capacity for the U.S. by 2030. In response, the utility industry has proposed a number of new coal projects, including several that would utilize IGCC technology. However, due to challenges mentioned above, plans for many new coal-based power plants are being abandoned or postponed. So, while there is a growing demand for electricity, there is also a critical need to accelerate the commercial demonstration of advanced coal-based power technology that can economically meet a carbon-constrained future.” The term “CCS” stands for Carbon Capture and Storage, and the term “IGCC” stands for Integrated Gasification Combined Cycle. However, these challenges mentioned above are not only limited to coal-based power but also in the field of liquid hydrocarbons as there is evidence that petroleum crude oil is becoming more difficult to discover.